Manual Reference Pages - RXVT (1)

CONTENTS

rxvt, version 2.6.4, is a colour vt102 terminal emulator
intended as an xterm(1) replacement for users who do not require
features such as Tektronix 4014 emulation and toolkit-style configurability.
As a result, rxvt uses much less swap space -- a significant
advantage on a machine serving many X sessions.

The rxvt options (mostly a subset of xterm's) are listed below.
In keeping with the smaller-is-better philosophy, options may be eliminated
or default values chosen at compile-time, so options and defaults listed
may not accurately reflect the version installed on your system.
rxvt -h' gives a list of major compile-time options on the usage line.
Option descriptions may be prefixed with which compile option each is
dependent upon. e.g. Compile XIM:' requires XIM on the usage line.
Note: rxvt -help' gives a list of all options compiled into your version.

Note that rxvt permits the resource name to be used as a long-option
(--/++ option) so the potential command-line options are far greater than
those listed.
For example: rxvt --loginShell --color1 Orange'.

-help, --help

Print out a message describing available options.

-displaydisplayname

Attempt to open a window on the named X display (-d still
respected). In the absence of this option, the display specified
by the DISPLAY environment variable is used.

Compile XPM: Specify XPM file for the background and also
optionally specify its scaling with a geometry string. Note you
may need to add quotes to avoid special shell interpretation of
the ;' in the command-line;
resource backgroundPixmap.

-crcolour

The cursor colour;
resource cursorColor.

-prcolour

The mouse pointer colour;
resource pointerColor.

-bdcolour

The colour of the border between the xterm scrollbar and the text;
resource borderColor.

Start iconified, if the window manager supports that option.
Alternative form is -ic.

-slnumber

Save number lines in the scrollback buffer;
resource saveLines.

-tntermname

This option specifies the name of the terminal type to be set in the
TERM environment variable. This terminal type must exist in the
termcap(5) database and should have li# and co# entries;
resource termName.

-ecommand [arguments]

Run the command with its command-line arguments in the rxvt
window; also sets the window title and icon name to be the basename
of the program being executed if neither -title (-T) nor
-n are given on the command line. If this option is used, it
must be the last on the command-line. If there is no -e option
then the default is to run the program specified by the SHELL
environment variable or, failing that, sh(1).

-titletext

Window title (-T still respected); the default title is the
basename of the program specified after the -e option, if
any, otherwise the application name;
resource title.

-ntext

Icon name; the default name is the basename of the program specified
after the -e option, if any, otherwise the application name;
resource iconName.

Note: rxvt --help' gives a list of all resources (long options) compiled
into your version.
If compiled with internal Xresources support (i.e. rxvt -h lists
.Xdefaults) then rxvt accepts application defaults set in
XAPPLOADDIR/Rxvt (compile-time defined: usually
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Rxvt) and resources set in ~/.Xdefaults,
or ~/.Xresources if ~/.Xdefaults does not exist. Note that when
reading X resources, rxvt recognizes two class names: XTerm and
Rxvt. The class name XTerm allows resources common to both
rxvt and xterm to be easily configured, while the class name
Rxvt allows resources unique to rxvt, notably colours and
key-handling, to be shared between different rxvt configurations.
If no resources are specified, suitable defaults will be used.
Command-line arguments can be used to override resource settings. The
following resources are allowed:

True: make the background inherit the parent windows' pixmap,
giving artificial transparency.
False: do not inherit the parent windows' pixmap.

scrollColor:colour

Use the specified colour for the scrollbar [default #B2B2B2].

troughColor:colour

Use the specified colour for the scrollbar's trough area [default
#969696]. Only relevant for normal (non XTerm/NeXT) scrollbar.

backgroundPixmap:file[;geom]

Use the specified XPM file (note the .xpm' extension is optional)
for the background and also optionally specify its scaling with a
geometry string WxH+X+Y, in which "W" / "H" specify the
horizontal/vertical scale (percent) and "X" / "Y" locate the
image centre (percent). A scale of 0 displays the image with tiling.
A scale of 1 displays the image without any scaling. A scale of 2 to
9 specifies an integer number of images in that direction. No image
will be magnified beyond 10 times its original size. The maximum
permitted scale is 1000. [default 0x0+50+50]

menu:file[;tag]

Read in the specified menu file (note the .menu' extension is
optional) and also optionally specify a starting tag to find. See
the reference documentation for details on the syntax for the menuBar.

path:path

Specify the colon-delimited search path for finding files (XPM and
menus), in addition to the paths specified by the RXVTPATH and
PATH environment variables.

font:fontname

Select the main text font used [default 7x14];
option -fn.

fontn:fontname

Specify the alternative font n. The default font values:

.in 0

3trans].nr 3crow 0

font: 7x14

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3crow 1

font1: 6x10

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3crow 3

font3: 8x13

3trans].nr 3brule 1

font4: 9x15

3trans].nr 3brule 1

boldFont:fontname

Specify the name of the bold font to use if colorBD has not been
specified and it is not possible to map the default foreground colour
to colour 8-15 [default NONE]. This font must be the same height and
width as the normal font;
option -fb.

True: place the scrollbar on the right of the window;
option -sr.
False: place the scrollbar on the left of the window;
option +sr.

scrollBar_floating:boolean

True: display an rxvt scrollbar without a trough;
option -st.
False: display an rxvt scrollbar with a trough;
option +st.

scrollTtyOutput:boolean

True: scroll to bottom when tty receives output;
option(+si).
False: do not scroll to bottom when tty receives output;
option(-si).

scrollTtyKeypress:boolean

True: scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed.
Special keys are those which are intercepted by rxvt for special
handling and are not passed onto the shell;
option(-sk).
False: do not scroll to bottom when a non-special key is pressed;
option(+sk).

smallfont_key:keysym

If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a smaller font
[default Alt-<]

bigfont_key:keysym

If enabled, use Alt-keysym to toggle to a bigger font
[default Alt->]

saveLines:number

Save number lines in the scrollback buffer [default 64];
option -sl.

termName:termname

Specifies the terminal type name to be set in the TERM
environment variable;
option -tn.

The string to send when the backspace key is pressed. If set to
DEC or unset it will send Delete (code 127) or, if shifted,
Backspace (code 8) - which can be reversed with the appropriate
DEC private mode escape sequence.

deletekey:string

The string to send when the delete key (not the keypad delete key) is
pressed. If unset it will send the sequence traditionally associated
with the Execute key.

cutchars:string

The characters used as delimiters for double-click word selection.
The built-in default:
BACKSLASH "'&()*,;<=>?@[]{|}

Associate string with keysym sym (0xFF00 - 0xFFFF). It
may contain escape values (\a: bell, \b: backspace, \e, \E: escape,
\n: newline, \r: return, \t: tab, \000: octal number) or control
characters (^?: delete, ^@: null, ^A ...) and may enclosed with
double quotes so that it can start or end with whitespace. The
intervening resource name keysym. cannot be omitted. This
resource is only available when compiled with KEYSYM_RESOURCE.

Lines of text that scroll off the top of the rxvt window (resource:
saveLines) and can be scrolled back using the scrollbar or by keystrokes.
The normal rxvt scrollbar has arrows and its behaviour is fairly
intuitive. The xterm-scrollbar is without arrows and its behaviour
mimics that of xterm

Scroll down with Button1 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Next.
Scroll up with Button3 (xterm-scrollbar) or Shift-Prior.
Continuous scroll with Button2.

To temporarily override mouse reporting, for either the scrollbar or the
normal text selection/insertion, hold either the Shift or the Meta (Alt) key
while performing the desired mouse action.

If mouse reporting mode is active, the normal scrollbar actions are disabled
-- on the assumption that we are using a fullscreen application.
Instead, pressing Button1 and Button3 sends
ESC[6~ (Next) and ESC[5~ (Prior), respectively.
Similarly, clicking on the up and down arrows sends ESC[A (Up) and
ESC[B (Down), respectively.

The behaviour of text selection and insertion mechanism is similar to
xterm(1).

Selection:

Left click at the beginning of the region, drag to the end of the
region and release; Right click to extend the marked region;
Left double-click to select a word; Left triple-click to select
the entire line.

Insertion:

Pressing and releasing the Middle mouse button (or Shift-Insert)
in an rxvt window causes the current text selection to be inserted
as if it had been typed on the keyboard.

You can change fonts on-the-fly, which is to say cycle through the default
font and others of various sizes, by using Shift-KP_Add and
Shift-KP_Subtract. Or, alternatively (if enabled) with
Alt-> and Alt-<, where the actual key
can be selected using resources smallfont_key/bigfont_key.

If graphics support was enabled at compile-time, rxvt can be queried
with ANSI escape sequences and can address individual pixels instead of
text characters. Note the graphics support is still considered beta code.

In addition to the default foreground and background colours, rxvt
can display up to 16 colours (8 ANSI colours plus high-intensity bold/blink
versions of the same).
Here is a list of the colours with their rgb.txt names.

.in 0

3trans].nr 3crow 0

color0 (black) = Black

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3crow 1

color1 (red) = Red3

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3brule 1

3trans].nr 3crow 3

color3 (yellow) = Yellow3

3trans].nr 3brule 1

color4 (blue) = Blue3

3trans].nr 3brule 1

It is also possible to specify the colour values of foreground,
background, cursorColor, cursorColor2, colorBD, colorUL
as a number 0-15, as a convenient shorthand to reference the colour name of
color0-color15.

Note that -rv ("reverseVideo: True") simulates reverse video by
always swapping the foreground/background colours. This is in contrast to
xterm(1) where the colours are only swapped if they have not otherwise been
specified.
For example,

rxvt -fg Black -bg White -rv

would yield White on Black, while on xterm(1) it would yield
Black on White.

rxvt sets the environment variables TERM, COLORTERM and
COLORFGBG. The environment variable WINDOWID is set to the X window
id number of the rxvt window and it also uses and sets the environment
variable DISPLAY to specify which display terminal to use. rxvt uses
the environment variables RXVTPATH and PATH to find XPM files.

The Rxvt Workers <rxvt-workers@rxvt.org>
mailing list has also been established for rxvt development, to
subscribe, email to
<rxvt-workers-subscribe@rxvt.org>.
There is also a mailing list for announcements of new releases of
rxvt. To subscribe, email to
<rxvt-announce-subscribe@rxvt.org>.